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Monday, January 14, 2002

football! football! football! laid off! laid off! laid off!

this is a complete re-edit, so if you read this before 1pm eastern and you find yourself back here, surprise. I'm FTPing from home. Don't know why or how but hell, it worked and I'm a happy gal.

I'm home with Geoff cause he's got yet another friggin fever. What the hell is up with this kid and fever? I think his body temp runs high, because she said when he got there that morning it was 99 (pit temp) and then it was 101 pit temp at about 11:30 when she called me.

I think that it sucks that he has to have a doctor's note in order to take children's tylenol at school. I either have to drive to the doctor (a half hour in the other direction) to pick it up or have them fax it (the school fax doesn't always work...) or have them mail it. Which takes two days.

I think I'm perfectly capable of giving permission and dosing information to the school nurse. For tylenol. It isn't a prescription (funny enough, they don't need a doctor note for a prescription, because the prescription is the note. The fact the doctor wrote it is sufficient. Whatever).

Anyway, that's all fine and good. Now that I'm home, I get to write.

And I'm kind of annoyed by this. The Weblog awards. They give out awards for weblogs that are simply a collection of links to other sites, but this particular site doesn't award journal style logs, such as this, or Shelleyness, or anything that's more than a series of quippy little sentences with links over to CNN.com or other news items. I think I should win an award. If anyone wants to give me one, that's cool.

Not that I'm looking for validation. I just don't think a bunch of links over to some site criticizing the site or the contents there is worth much. I have said it before and I'll say it again - I'd much rather read a full blown article style entry than something like: "Omigod! I can't believe Wil Wheaton said this...." and a link over to the site, but no more substance than "Omigod" as an opinion.

But, whatever.

I'm here to talk today about football.

Yes. Football. The season is drawing to a close, and I am saddened by that prospect, but, I'm excited that the three teams and one coach I like best are still in the running.

The New England Patriots, The Pittsburgh Steelers, The Green Bay Packers, and Jon Gruden, coach of the nasty as they wanna be (and not one of my favorite teams at all) Oakland Raiders.

I think Jon Gruden is a handsome man, but fans seem to think he looks like Chucky the nefariously evil murderous doll from the Child's Play movies... Not in my book he doesn't. Chucky's a scary little troll with red hair. Jon is kinda scary when he's screaming and yelling at the officiating staff, but hell, he's got blonde hair and an intense set of eyes. He's alright in my book.

Not a Chucky. Anyway. He's cool by me. Raiders fans scare the shit out of me though. They come there all dressed like the Nazgul in LOTR, with scary skulls and blood dripping... man. It's a trip to watch a Raiders game just to see Gruden screaming at people (and he did an unbelievable job screaming at refs this weekend. You could read his lips a mile away. "What the Fuck is WRONG WITH YOU!!!" And they showed it a thousand times. Mother of Mercy I was laughing my fat ass off).

And even cooler than he is, is one Brett Favre. Piece of ass on the gridiron I tell you what. We call him Mr. Football here in our house, and I'm sure hundreds of Green Bay fans do the same. He can get his team out of so many messes, and he looks cool and confident. And he's cute as hell. He's got skinny lips like me though. He could be my cousin... e-yikes! One of the things I've always wanted to do is I'd love to take a trip to Green Bay and run around on Lambeau Field. Look up at the walls of fame, hear the voices of Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Vince Lombardi, and Brett Favre ringing on the walls. I'd want to go in the summer though. Green Bay gets frickin' cold. Yes

Yeah.

But I don't really have to go to Green Bay because right here in my own back yard is the team everyone thought would be home taking naps by now - The Patriots. They have sucked ass so bad over the last couple years that when they started winning this season everyone sat around shaking their heads thinking it was a total fluke. He's not cute, but Tom Brady sure as hell is doing a fine job at QB in Drew Bledsoe's stead... and they stand a good chance. Equally good is the chance our Pittsburgh Steelers have. Now, as much as I like the Pats, I have grown to love the Steelers so much more. I remember the days of the Terrible Towel, and seeing good old Three Rivers Stadium clogged with a sea of black and gold bodies. I thought that they were the hardest core blue collar crazy crowd I'd ever seen. I had great joy in watching them watch their team.

Now they've got a groovy screaming and crazy coach, Bill Cowher (he ain't cute like Gruden, but Gruden is studying to BE Bill Cowher with his spitting and screaming and intensity spells), and Jerome Bettis, Kordell "I sucked so bad for the past few years everyone gave up on me but I'm baaaaack" Stewart, Plaxico (aka Plexiglass... bwa ha ha) Burress, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Hines Ward (the stadium is not named after him, he spells his first name differently anyway), and a ton of other supremely super guys (I won't list them out here... I can tell I'm already boring the shit out of you...)

So it'll be a fun post-season. I am so looking forward to the next few weeks of football.

Just got a phone call.

I'm laid off.

As I couldn't talk about it in the journal before, I can mention it now. But of course I cannot say anything else about where I worked, or any sort of details about the company or what have you because that violates an agreement that I signed when I got hired. I think I have to be quiet for like 18 months. But many of you know where I work because some of you are my co-workers.

My boss and her "uber" boss, as Scott Anderson would say, just phoned to deliver the news. I knew something was up when I called Deb from home to let her know I could come back in after Doug got home from work, and she told me to call her first before I came in. So I totally knew.

So that's what I've been unable to talk about, and unable to bring up. So now I'm just another unemployed web designer. Isn't that cool?

I'm pretty okay with it. I have a lead already on another job with the guy who got me in with this company in the first place (he left well over a year ago) and he told me to expect a call this week. From what I understand, I am paid through mid-March, and I'm allowed to go work because my official last day is today.

I feel like there is so much that I left undone. So much that could have been done better. This last week has been difficult because on the one hand I knew it was probably coming but didn't really want to believe it. I thought for certain that I'd be let go, but part of me said nah. They'll keep me and piss me off.

I'm laughing kind of... but sad kind of.

Isn't it weird?

I've been going to this job for almost two years and bam. Done. I have an appointment with my boss to go over my severance package. That's Wednesday morning at 9am. And that's that.